I’m always a bit sobered and awed when I read a student’s exam or paper and see my own stuff coming back at me (morphed a bit, to be sure, but recognizable). Teachers have a huge responsibility. I hope that students recognize that although faculty strive for accuracy and objectivity, Read more…
The search for the basis of happiness is convoluted, to say the least. As we mentioned in an earlier post, happiness is vastly different between conservatives and liberals, world-wide as well as in the United States. Money certainly doesn’t guarantee happiness, which given our current back-to-the-Stone-Age economy, is probably a Read more…
We reported previously that the Happiness Gap between conservatives and liberals world-wide was continuing to grow, and new data from the Pew Research Center say that October’s gap is the biggest ever. Unlike the previous report, which focused on differences in attitudes towards “social injustice,” the Pew survey was much Read more…
Social psychologists have known for a long time that how you present options heavily influences decisions. In one such study, people had a choice to earn $20, or to gamble for $50 and risk getting nothing. If you frame the “safe” choice as a $30 loss, people are more likely Read more…
My students are very aware that I have an unusually negative view of chemically altering the human nervous system (with, of course, the exception of my favorite drug of choice–caffeine). I think it’s just fair to let students know if you bring this type of bias into the classroom–sort of Read more…